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Prosecutors: Local Airman who sold night vision goggles on eBay should get prison

Prosecutors: Local Airman who sold night vision goggles on eBay should get prison

A Wright-Patterson Air Force Base employee is scheduled to be sentenced in January 2018 for stealing and selling night vision goggles on eBay. STAFF/FILE

The man who stole night vision goggles and other equipment and sold them on eBay for $154,000 while an active-duty member at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base will get prison time if a judge follows the recommendation of federal prosecutors.

A sentencing memorandum filed last month in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York said that Zachary Sizemore “should be sentenced to (12 to 18 months) of imprisonment for his theft and sale of sensitive United States military technology,” adding that Sizemore “betrayed his fellow service members.”

Sizemore’s sentencing has been pushed back multiple times and is now scheduled for Jan. 10 in front of U.S. District Court Judge Sterling Johnson Jr.

The sentencing memo written by assistant U.S. attorney Nomi Berenson said a person who purchased a night vision goggle (NVG) and a mini-thermal monocular (MTM) is a foreign national and that “had law enforcement authorities not intercepted the packages, they would have been exported from the United States.”

The memo also states the technology is on the International Traffic in Arms “Munitions List” and requires a license to be exported to a foreign country.

“Punishment and deterrence is even more important,” Berenson wrote, “because, by knowingly stealing and selling military technology to anonymous purchasers on the internet, the defendant allowed anyone access to technology that the military intends to keep away from unfriendly foreign actors.”

A supplement to the memo by prosecutors was filed under seal. A message seeking comment from Sizemore’s attorney was not immediately returned.

There is not yet a sentencing memo filed by Sizemore’s attorney, according to the case docket.